Polka-Dot Man
Abner Krill is a Batman rogue from the Silver Age of Comic Books. As the Polka-Dot Man (sometimes called Mr. Polka-Dot), he turns the polka dots covering his costume into a variety of weapons. Character History The Polka-Dot Man was a cunning criminal whose crimes revolved around the general theme of dots, as like when he stills a black pearl from a foreign official who travels with a spotted leopard. Polka-Dot Man's white costume is covered with multicolored polka dots, each of which, when torn from it's place, instantly transforms itself into some sort of bizarre weapon or escape device:"Inside my costume are wires connected to each dot. While a dot is ON my costume, the dot is neutral ... but when I rip OFF a dot, it is activated electronically -- and then does the job for which it was gimmicked." In their first encounter with the bandit at the Spot Service Cleaning Company, Batman and Robin had no time to find amusement in the the Polka-Dot Man's strange fashion sense. They were too busy dodging the flying buzz-saw that had metamorphosized from a spot tossed at them by Mister Polka-Dot. A second growing disk expanded into a makeshift flying saucer, operated by his control belt. Dots also proved to be the rogue's downfall when he abducted Robin and forced him to write a message luring Batman into a trap. The Polka-Dot Man failed to notice the holes punched in the paper, actually Braille dots that alerted the Caped Crusader to the threat. By this point Batman had ascertained a pattern in Polka-Dot Man's crimes, observing that his string of robberies had created a connect-the-dot stick figure on the Gotham map. By travelling to the probable head of the figure (a map company, whose cities were designated by dots), Batman caught the villain in the act and handed him a hard punch to the jaw. "Right on the dot. By now, you should be seeing spots before your eyes, Mr. Polka-Dot." The sensational character find of 1961 did not return, only briefly reintroduced in a "Bureau of Missing Villains" retrospective in 1977's BATMAN FAMILY # 15. The Polka-Dot Man finally returned in Batman: GCPD # 1 in 1996, having reached an extremely low rank in Gotham's Post-Crisis underworld. Penniless, no longer able to afford his original electronically gimmicked costume, and desperate for money, he instead resorted to using a baseball bat in a poorly-thought out attempt to rob a jewelry store, declaring in response to an insult that "I'm NOT specked! I'm the Polka Dot Man." Wearing a replica of his original polka-dot costume, the Polka-Dot Man was soon interrupted by police officer Foley. During his jewelry heist, he ended up smashing Officer Foley's knee before Harvey Bullock, who was tired of seeing costumed villains in the city, grabbed the bat and assaulted the villain in return. The assault put the Polka-Dot Man in traction, and the Polka Dot Man, in response, "filed a brutality complaint" against the police department which resulted in Bullock being forced to see a psychiatrist for some time. Powers and Abilities Whether he created the suit or stole the technology is unknown, but Abner Krill possessed advanced technology in the form of his costume's dots. When attached to his costume, they were inert, but once removed, they would enlarge in size and become various different devices which could aid in his crime spree, most notably a flying saucer which he used as a getaway vehicle. The spots were controlled through the costume's belt. In other media *Polka-Dot Man appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite." He, along with The Joker, Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, Tiger Shark, Mad Hatter, and several other villains appear briefly in Bat-Mite's imagination. Category: Villains